What do you do about a memory card that hiccups?

[audidudi]

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This past weekend, one of my 2GB SanDisk SD cards worked fine in my DMC-LC1 -- it would read and write images just fine -- but when I got home, it couldn't be read by the card reader on my computer.

 

After I swapped it between the camera and computer a few times trying to determine where the problem was, it then couldn't be read by the camera although new images could be written to it. Figuring I had nothing to lose at that point, I reformatted it in camera and it worked fine again. And now, a few days and a few hundred test images later, it appears to still be working fine.

 

So, do I trust that this was a temporary glitch and continue using it (at least for non-critical stuff) or do I consider the card permanently unreliable and pitch it? I'm inclined to the latter but curious as to how other folks would handle this situation...

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[Philinflash]

I format the SD memory card each time I put it into the camera after I have downloaded its prior contents to a hard disk.

 

When I download, I do it as a "copy" in Windows rather than a "move" which is really equivalent to "copy" to new destination and "erase" at the old source. I do it this way so that if there is a snafu in the midst of the download, I should still have good content on the SD card. Only once I am satisfied that the content is now safely mirrored on the hard disk am I ready to erase the SD card contents. And the best way to do that is to format it in the camera. This should be the safest way to eliminate electronic artifacts on the SD card that might otherwise confuse the camera. It seems to take less than a minute.

[barjohn]

I give up, make it hold its breath? Stand the card upside down while making it drink a glass of water?

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Hmmm seems like just hearing about SD card issues mostly seems to come down to Sandisk with the most issues. I wish we had a running record of this to refer too but from memory most issues in the last couple months are Sandisk. Frankly my rule of thumb one glitch from a card and it get's downgraded to my cell phone or the garbage. i just don't risk anything here. I am using Transcend 4gb 150 x cards have about 8 of them and no issues ever

[Skippy Sanchez]

Hmmm seems like just hearing about SD card issues mostly seems to come down to Sandisk with the most issues.....

 

I believe there hs been a flood of counterfeit SanDisk cards lately. I found a very good price on the 2-gig Ultra II -- the same as I have been using for the past three years in my Digilux 2 -- from MemorySuppliers.com, so I bought three of 'em. Two worked OK but are VERY slow to format compared to my older cards; about 2 1/2 minutes as opposed to 15-20 seconds, but they seem to work just fine. The third one just flat wouldn't format at all.

 

On close inspection of the cards themselves, they are different than my older cards... different color plastic, different lock switch, different finish on the lables themselves.

 

I emailed and they offered a replacement for the one that crashed. I asked if there was a possibility they could be distrubiting counterfeit cards unawares, but received no response.

 

As I said, they seem to work fine, although they are slower to write than I would expect for a "high-speed" card. I'm hanging on to them as backups, but will continue using the older ones as my primary cards.

[Guest guy_mancuso]

Thanks Skippy for bringing that up it happened to me a couple years ago on e-bay also. I can only recommend buying cards from reliable places becuase this has been going on for some time. i think I bought one also from Flashmemory and it was fake also. Sandisk brand does seem the target of fake cards

 

I buy my cards from http://www.mydigitaldiscount.com and have for the last 3 years. never a issue.